LAS VEGAS  Here are NCAA Tournament resumes for two college basketball teams:

One had a No. 26 RPI, one win over teams in the RPI Top 25, seven wins over Top 75 and one loss below 100. Its best win was against No. 18, by two points. Its strength of schedule was 58th, its Sagarin rating 61st, its Pomeroy rating 69th.

The other had a No. 30 RPI, two wins over teams in the Top 25, eight wins over the Top 75 and no losses below 100. Its best win was against No. 2, by 21 points. Its strength of schedule was 19th, its Sagarin rating 31st, its Pomeroy rating 29th.

The resumes belong to the same school, of course: San Diego State, last year and this year.

You can make an argument, at least according to the way the selection committee evaluates teams, that the 2012-13 Aztecs have an equal or better body of wordk than their 2011-12 counterparts. Yet when their name is called Sunday afternoon as the 68-team bracket is unveiled – the watch party this year is closed to the public – they’re likely to have a worse seed.

SDSU was a 6 last year.

This year? A 9? Maybe an 8?

The difference is there are no elite teams in college basketball this season and a bunch of merely good ones that will populate the 4th through 12th seeding lines – with the Aztecs expected to fall smack in the middle of that. According to The Bracket Project, which tracks close to 100 bracket projections, the Aztecs have an average seed of 8.52.

The 8-9 line brings advantages and disadvantages. You get a similar opponent, a team that also finished third or fourth in a respected conference, a team that has its flaws, a team that you don’t look at and wince. It also means you almost never survive the first weekend of the tournament.

If you win, you get a No. 1 seed in a geographically-favorable venue – Louisville, say, in nearby Lexington, Kent, or Indiana just across the Ohio border in Dayton. A No. 1 seed has never lost its opener to a No. 16, and over the past 10 years No. 1s are 36-4 against the winner of the 8-9 game.

But before you get a crack at a No. 1, you have to win your opener. And for the 22-10 Aztecs, that may be less about their seed than their opponent.

If we learned anything at the Mountain West tournament, or over the last two seasons for that matter, it is that the Aztecs struggle against bigs. In nine games this season against teams that start a beefy post – Syracuse, USC, Arizona, Colorado State and New Mexico – the Aztecs went 3-5 with their starting front line of 6-foot-8 and 6-7. Against everyone else: 19-5.

SDSU coach Steve Fisher was asked Friday night about the prospects for Mountain West teams in the NCAA Tournament.

“I think a lot will have to do with the luck of the draw,” Fisher said. “I think New Mexico, in particular, maybe Vegas and Colorado State, have the size that it won’t matter who they play. I think we’re better served when we play perimeter-driven teams.”